


Mass Effect Chronicles: Index

by ShepardDragon



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Codex Entries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2018-11-21 10:41:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11355801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShepardDragon/pseuds/ShepardDragon
Summary: This is an index of all the reference information some people may want in order to read my story of the Mass Effect Trilogy known as Mass Effect Chronicles. It is by no means necessary to read it, but if you want more information on the world I and many others have built inside the already amazing universe of Mass Effect, then it'll be here for you.This will not have all information up front to prevent spoilers. It will be updated regularly as the story progresses.





	1. Acronyms

**Time  
**  
CE - Current Era (Galactic Year)  
CSD - Citadel Standard Date  
CST - Citadel Standard Time  
ESD - Earth Standard Date (Julian)  
EST - Earth Standard Time (Zulu)  
PSD - Palaven Standard Date  
PST - Palaven Standard Time (Common)  
  
**Military**  
  
CO - Commanding Officer  
COR - Command Operations Room  
NCO - Noncommissioned officer (Enlisted)  
PT - Physical Training  
SITREP - Situation Report  
TDA - Temporary Duty Assignment  
XO - Executive Officer  
  
**Distance**  
  
AU – Astronomical Unit  
  
**Government**  
  
UNE - United Nations of Earth


	2. Colonies

**Human**  
  
**Amaterasu**  
Attican Traverse/Ama-no-Gawa Cluster/Shinto System  
Founded - 2170 CE  
Capital - Okamiden  
Population - 5.7 million (as of 2175)  
Populations (Fleet Depot) - 17,213 (as of 2175)  
Description - A colony built for the citizen families of the Alliance Fleet stationed in the same star system, it was chosen due to the Shinto relay within the kuiper belt. The Alliance decided that having such a back door into Alliance Space open was unacceptable, and built the Czarnobóg Fleet Depot as a deterrent for unrestricted access further into Alliance controlled territory.  
  
Relevance - In 2175, a terrorist attack was committed on the capital city's main convention center. After making a startling discovery in the message sent by the terrorists, Shepard was sent to the surface to help those who needed, and to try and figure out where the culprit who committed such a heinous crime was.  
  
**Eden Prime**  
Earth Systems Alliance Space/Exodus Cluster/Utopia System  
Founded - 2152 CE  
Capital - Constant  
Population - 3.7 million (as of 2183)  
Description - This idyllic agrarian world was one of the first human colonies established beyond the Charon mass relay. Eden Prime's biosphere is unusually well-suited for importation of Earth-native life. This fertility drew heavy immigration and development by the Systems Alliance and various corporations. Eden Prime is a model of sustainable, organized development. The population is housed space-efficient arcologies that tower over thousands of kilometers of green fields and orchards.  
  
Relevance - In 2183 CE, Shepard was sent aboard the SSV Normandy SR1 to make a pickup of vital galactic discovery on the surface of Eden Prime. Unfortunately, she was not the only one who had heard about the prized archaeological discovery. She found that it was under attack, with the Alliance fighting for its life to protect the artifact from the hostile invaders.  
  
**Elysium**  
Skyllian Verge/Petra Nebula/Vetus System  
Founded - 2160 CE  
Capital - Illyria  
Population - 8.3 Million (as of 2176)  
Populations (Orbital Stations) - 223,500 (as of 2176)  
Description - The first and oldest human colony in the Skyllian Verge. It's one of humanity's larger colonies, resulting in a mix of races with a primarily human population. The city has GARDIAN Defense towers put in place by the Alliance, and the city is divided up into 12 different sectors, with the strongest Alliance presence being at the center where all of these sectors connect, and each sector has a defensive wall built around it to protect against invasion of ground forces, with a single gate allowing entry into each sector from the outside.  
  
Relevance - In 2176, its record of longstanding peace was broken with an organized group of pirates from the nearby Terminus Systems invaded, resulting in wide-scale destruction and death. The invasion was known as the Skyllian Blitz, an attack on Elysium by the gathered forces of most of the pirates, raiders, and slavers in the Terminus Systems. Shepard assisted in repelling the attack, earning her the Star of Terra.  
  
  
**Shanxi**  
Human Systems Alliance Space/Alliance Frontier/Shenzhou System  
Founded – 2155 CE  
Capital – Taiyuan  
Population – 2.5 Million  
Description - A human colony primarily settled by citizens of Earth's own People's Republic of Asia. After settling the world, human explorers continued to try and explore the reaches of space by heading through the Shanxi-Theta relay found in the same system as the colonized world. However, upon reaching the other side of the relay corridor, they were attacked and destroyed by a new alien species named turians. After a back and forth war that resolved only when the Citadel Council stepped in to broker a treaty, the people of Shanxi grew to despise the alien race that had held their colony hostage and dropped orbital debris to bombard their troops. Being the only colony to have ever been surrendered to hostile alien attack, it also has the greatest stigma against aliens, leaving it one of the only established Alliance colonies that is 100% human populated.  
  
Relevance – In 2174, the capitol building in Taiyuan, Shanxi was chosen as the site for the discussion of reparations for the humans at the behest of the Hierarchy, due to the role the colony played during the Relay 314 incident, known also as the First Contact War. The negotiations were interrupted when a small band of the wider, pro-human group known as the Sons of Adam stormed the building, killed security, and held the diplomats hostage. Shepard was sent with other Alliance infiltrators to rescue the group.  



	3. Measurements

**Citadel Standard Time (CST)  
** (CST seconds are half as long as EST)  
100 seconds per minute  
100 minutes per hour  
20 hours per day  
344 days per year  
(One day in CST = 27 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds in EST)  
  
**Astronomical Unit  
** One astronomical unit (AU) is the mean distance of Earth from the Sun, about 150 million km.

 


	4. Xenolinguistics Archive

These will be done with as close to a translation as possible in English. Not all will fit exactly with English words, but I will do my best. **  
  
Turian  
  
**Zavis - A Palaven native insect that is similar in function to Earth's honey bees. They are around twice the size, and their stingers do not eject when a target is stung, meaning that they will not die from stinging a target. This makes them a more imminent threat if there is a large hive unchecked near civilian populations.  
  
  
Asari  
  
In Asari 'Alai' dialect, apostrophes are used to note a break in the word. The break is pronounced with a sharp stop, before proceeding to pronounce the rest of the word in question.  
  
"Nah'savo s'a _____." - "You can know me as _____." | Asari names are fluid and can change from one life stage to the next. So when speaking in Alai, they typically offer what they currently go by.  
  
"Ta'lavaloa ma'li lira." - "I wish you no harm." | The Alai word 'ma'li' is interchangable with violence, harm, or damage.  
  
"Se'la?" - "You?" | Is used in conversation to ask a person to elaborate on a point made by the asker. If the person gives their name, this word would then ask for the conversation partners name in return. If the person expresses a political belief, the word would then be asking for the partner's belief on the matter.  
  
"Saeaza'yenya." - "I'm here to offer help." | A colloquial term that can be used in many situations, casual or emergency.  
  
"Se'yeya loasa'sa." - "Tell me what you need." | Fairly straightforward.  
  
"Nasala k'itya." - "Save my child." | The word k'itya is a term for any child, from unborn to toddler age (12).   
  
****Batarian  
  
"Shakas!" - "Damn!" | A curse commonly used by batarians that refers to their hellish God, Shakas, a large tentacled monster that pries the eyes from the unclean after their soul is sent into his hellish pit.


	5. Xeno Cultures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the section explaining the different cultures, their traditions, biology, and other things that were not covered in the lore of the Mass Effect Codex.

**Turian**  
  
Clan Paint - Turians typically use clan paint to mark what colony they were born on. Clan paint can change depending on marriage, however. If two turians from differing colonies wed, oftentimes one of them will change their clan paint to match their spouces. There are turians who do not wear clan paint, those who hail from the capitol city of Palaven named Cipritine. This usually implies a link to the former ruler of turian space before they achieved FTL status, a figure known as the Imperator.  
  
Marriage - Marriage under turian law comes with multiple contracts, all of which are considered invalid until the trading of knives (in turian culture, knives are traded instead of rings). Unlike human marriage, where the contract lasts until divorce or annulment is filed, turian contracts have a set time limit, and have to be renewed. The first contract, basically an engagement, or promise to marriage, is known as the Tal Vas. It holds no obligation for either party to marry, but is a promise between partners. It is basically the equivalent of an engagement ring, and expires in two years time. The second contract, known as Tal Vaes, is the actual marriage contract. It binds the two partners together legally. The terms of the contract, meaning who would play what role in the marriage, who brings what income, and if the contract is left to expire, how much goes to who is negotiated at the beginning of the contract with lawyers. And the contract expires after four years. The last and final contract is Tal Mae, which is a permanent binding to another partner. Again, the terms of the contract are negotiated at the beginning, and the contract doesn't expire. In order for either partner to get out of the contract, they forfeit all claims to property or inheritence and are basically left destitute if this route is taken. Breaking a Tal Mae contract carries a heavy stigma with it, and in turian society, the breaker of the contract (often dubbed with the caloquialism 'truhnka,' meaning promise breaker, liar, and deceitful one all rolled into one word) are looked down upon as oath breakers, or honorless.  
  
Honor - A turian's honor is everything to them. Those who are disavowed as 'honorless' are often stigmatized by the rest of society. On the other end, turian's who have not been dishonored by society, but have themselves declared themselves without honor (usually through bad decision making, traumatizing life events, etc.) are caloquially called 'morloci,' or "dead men." They are often considered extremely dangerous and not to be trifled with, as they have nothing to lose in life anymore, making them capable of anything.  
  
Religion - Unlike most species, pre-space age turians only had one known religion throughout their entire race. It was a belief that titans had formed their world, the life on it, including the flora and fauna, and gave shared their spirit with it all, giving it life. But despite their great feats, were not happy. So they strode about reaching for the sky, trying to reach outside of the world. The chief among these titans, named Palaven, began to build mountains that reached for the skies to climb higher and higher, but still could not escape from their self-made prison. Thus, they slept beneath the world, waiting for the day that they would finally be able to escape. This was the religion believed by most medieval era turians, which shifted vastly during the era in which they took to space flight. Upon discovering new worlds, most of the turian race selectively removed the titans themselves from their religion, while keeping the belief that everything had a spirit. This belief evolved into its own spiritualism that taught that everything had a spirit, from the planet, to people, and even non-living things. While most of these spirits were not alive per se, and could not intervene as human spirits are known to do, one could pray to them for inspiration or in respect. While this was the dominant religion during the space age, it became martially so during the Unification War. During the war, each colony was forced to mark their faces with paint that designated their colony, and each one was forced to give up any outside theism for this spirit belief. As the years wore on after the war ended however, the regulation on this died out, and each turian was then allowed to preach and believe as they saw fit, as long as it didn't interfere with their work, or the lives of others.  
  
[Thanks to Myetel for allowing me to borrow ideas from her on turians!]  
  
 **Asari**  
  
Facepaint - Unlike their natural birth marks, as can be seen as darker blue to almost purple (depending on skin color), some asari also paint their faces in a similar fashion to the turians. However, unlike the turians, whose facial decorations are a note of origins, the paints of the asari are instead features of status. Despite their open society, and outward acceptance of all asari, they still have class structure, and can be seen wearing paint appropriate to their status. For outsiders, it can be noted that the less paint one has, the lower on the ladder that asari is. A matriarch with high status and much reknown would be seen with many delicately painted markings on her face, so that all asari who saw her would know her status and treat her as society demands. On the other end of the scale, those who have yet to climb the ladder of status wear no paint at all. There are also different colors that represent different branches of this status tree. White paint is seen as civilian or governmental, while red would denote military status.  
  
Marriage - Unlike most of the rest of the species in the galaxy, asari don't have traditional marriage in a relationship sense. As opposed to most cultures, an asari may have a number of close relationships with several people without stigma from their own society. And almost never are these relationships held to the high standards of other races. The only actual binding contract between partners only takes place when a child is born, and it only holds that both parents must provide equal responsibility over the child in question. But even under this contract, neither parent is held to relationship resposibilities with the other. However, oftentimes when an asari mates outside her own species, she adopts the marriage rules of the hosting species instead.  
  
Religion - Asari, like many species in the galaxy, come from many religions that are as different as each individual. However, after they made contact with another species and found that their melding ability both worked, and bore them offspring, one ideology which preached that all beings in the universe were part of the greater whole dominated the entire race. This religion, known as Siari, tells that the entire universe is one giant conscious creation, and each person is a part of that creation. Once a being dies, their spiritual energy returns to the greater whole of the universe. While not believing specifically in the reincarnation of one soul, they do believe that spiritual energy that is returned to the universe is eventually recycled back into giving life once more, resulting in not a reborn being, but a new being entirely. Some believers of this particular religion go as far as to believe that every species, their worlds and their universes are the consciousness of a goddess itself. This, as well as the now dead monotheistic religious worship of the goddess Athame, are both attributed for the common phrase among asari, "Oh my goddess!"  
  



End file.
